Yours & Owls To Keep Live Music As New-Look RAD

Wollongong music company Yours & Owls has confirmed that their venue, which operated under the same name, has been sold to a buyer who will continue live music in the space.

Daniel Radburn, who has been involved with the venue for the past 12 months and drums with the band Step-Panther, will become the sole owner of the venue – re-named RAD – when the lease is officially transferred over and intends to continue featuring live music as well as art exhibitions and poetry slams.

Located at 95a Crown St, Wollongong, Radburn also intends to introduce food and drink selections while re-vamping the space. RAD continues to trade during the “transition” period, and will officially launch Saturday 5 October.

Today Yours & Owls' Ben Tillman told theMusic.com.au that – after fielding a number of offers for the venue, which was listed for $40,000 in June – they will continue to be involved with the venue from a bookings and a promotion point of view. They are also working with Novotel's Beach Bar and the University Of Wollongong's UniBar.

Yours & Owls can be credited with being a key influencer in the emergence of Wollongong, an hour south of Sydney, as a live hub. It is now starting to find an identity beyond a splattering of youth centre and venue shows that dominated the region previously.

“A lot of people have come through the space and been inspired,” Tillman said today. “Kids have seen us doing it and thought, 'Maybe we can do this too.'”

Your & Owls had previously announced the 'end' of the venue after listing the space, and held a farewell party late last month. Yesterday the City Diggers Club announced that they would be looking to capture some of the live indie market, through a new partnership with local music advocates Bear Media.

Much of Wollongong's development can also be credited to a restlessness within the scene, which has lead to local government campaigning and recently the establishment of a Live Music Taskforce. With prominent live music campaigner and policy advisor John Wardle brought in to oversee the committee – which had its first meeting last week – other members include Oscars Hotels' Carlie Carroll, local campaigner Jessie Hunt, Music Farmers' Jeb Taylor and Tillman.

Today Tillman admitted that he wasn't yet sure what the committee will eventually achieve, but said it was positive to feel a “buzz around this live music theory”.

While working with RAD and other venues Yours & Owls are planning their festival The Farmer & The Owl for late November and are exploring further venue options in Wollongong.